VATICAN CITY -- The Office of Papal
Charities has purchased enough doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to offer
inoculations in Rome to 1,200 of "the poorest and most marginalized people
who, because of their situation, are the most exposed" to the coronavirus.
The office, run by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, said in a
statement March 26 that the first doses would be administered during Holy Week
in the atrium of the Vatican audience hall, which is where Vatican employees
have been receiving the Pfizer shots since mid-January.
Cardinal Krajewski's office also encouraged people to buy a
vaccine for "our poorest and most vulnerable brothers and sisters" by
making a donation online at www.elemosineria.va, the address of the papal
almoner's office, which distributes charity in the name of the pope.
Soon after Pope Francis and retired Pope Benedict XVI
received their first Pfizer shots in mid-January, Pope Francis asked the
Vatican health service to not only vaccinate Vatican residents and employees,
but also the poor who live in three homeless shelters nearby. Fifty residents
were vaccinated, the almoner's office said.
The Vatican also vaccinated journalists who traveled with
Pope Francis to Iraq in early March and has been offering the vaccine to
ambassadors accredited to the Holy See. As of March 26, the Vatican had not
said how many people total had been vaccinated there.
Pope Francis has repeatedly encouraged people to get
vaccinated to protect their health, the health of their loved ones and the
health of their neighbors. He also repeatedly has called for global efforts to
ensure equitable distribution of the vaccine, rather than policies that amount
to wealthier countries buying up most of the available shots and reserving them
for their own citizens.
The Holy Week vaccination program at the Vatican will be
staffed by the physicians and other health workers who serve at the "Madre
di Misericordia" mobile health clinic for the poor in St. Peter's Square,
employees of the Vatican health service and volunteers from Rome's Lazzaro
Spallanzani Hospital and an Italian organization of medical professionals who
offer free care to the poor.